[Efficiency of minor surgery in primary care according to the costs]

To quantify the cost of minor surgery in our health district during a year, by examining the amounts charged. To find the degree of clinical/pathological correlation and the number of complications, as indirect indicators of quality.

Descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study.

Primary care, Río Nacimiento Health District, Abla (Almería).

The study included all those patients attended within the minor surgery programme in the year 2000, and all the procedures used (84 patients and 95 procedures).

The variables analysed were: type of procedure and surgery, clinical/pathological correlation, early surgical complications, and cost per procedure. We calculated the cost of our activity on the basis of: a) cost occasioned at the health centre; b) what a medical insurance company would bill; c) what a primary care district would bill, and d) what a health service hospital would bill.

95 procedures in 84 patients were examined. 31 samples were sent to pathology with a clinical-pathological correlation of 77.42%. No complications were recorded. At our centre the cost was 817.18 euros. An insurance company would have charged 8803.63 euros; a PC district, 4852.03 euros; and a health service hospital, 14 015.39 euros.

The minor surgery performed at our health centre by our team was more cost-effective than if it was performed in other public or private centres with high standards of quality.